May 14, 2017

François Saint-Leger & Estelle Maitre (Loire)

François & Estelle in their chai

Monthou-su-Cher, Touraine (Loire)
This corner of Touraine is one of these very favorable places for young demanding vignerons wanting to start their domaine : pretty nice terroirs on an area that isn't rated high on the AOC charts (Touraine) which means that when available you can get vineyards without
breaking the bank. François & Estelle whom
I met in their chai/cellar under the hill (pic on right) have been starting their own winery here
since january 2014 after they found a retiring grower putting his vineyard for sale. They didn't hesitate much, they were from the region and knew by experience that these slopes along the Cher river have many interesting terroirs that yield beautiful wines when worked properly (which isn't alas the option followed by most commercial wineries). Monthou-su-Cher is the next village after Thésée (with Bruno, Joël, Olivier and Damien) on the same bank of the Cher, and Pouillé on the other side (with Noella, Laurent, Junko, Emily & Ben) and Paul & Corinne, in short a good company and high concentration of artisan vintners (and I certainly forget a few others)...

To start from the beginning, François and Estelle had already a few years of experience in the trade, they both met at the wine school of Amboise but before that each of them had gone through several years of work and training in different domaines : Estelle had worked 4 or 5 years in the Montlouis region, for growers/winemakers like François Chidaine, Bertrand Jousset and also Vincent Careme while François worked in Cheverny for Philippe Tessier, yet another artisan winemaker known for his serious work in the vineyard. Over there they were both doing all the usual work in the vineyard and the chai as well, being thus trained in organic farming and natural winemaking. They met during the training at the wine school and set up their domaine 6 months later, that's a beautiful story...

This little-known corner of Touraine has certainly a long lineage and history, and right between Thésée and Monthou-su-Cher you can see these incredible Gallo-Roman ruins of Mazelles (my pic on left, shot from the main road), with a couple of huge walls still standing, the whole building complex having been built in the early 2nd century. No need to say that wine was around at that time, you don't build such an elaborate construction without enjoying the other jewels of the Civilization....

In the chai under the hill

I met François and Estelle in their chai along the road between Thésée and Monthou-sur-Cher with the railroad tracks and the Cher river on the other side of the road. The railroad along the river was built in 1869 (see pictures here), bringing economic development and plain excitement as well, some people of that
time choosing to build their house in a spot with view over this wonder of modernity.
Be it by road, barge or railroad, the wines of the region could be shipped easily by the négociants to the major towns of the region.

There was no building or facility included with the vineyard surface they purchased, so François and Estelle had to rent the cellar instead, the family preferring not to let it go for sentimental reasons. The cellar is built into the rock of the hill, it was like usual probably initially an artisanal quarry to extract sandstone for building purpose and was turned afterwards into a cellar and chai. It is conveniently sized and the year before they came here it was used by the former owners who would sell their wine to the négoce in bulk. There would be more room in these cellars if they could get rid of the large cement vats which the're not using.

Their first vintage on their own domaine was 2014 and on that 1st year they made 2000 bottles, selling the rest of the grapes. His first cuvées this year were a Sauvignon and a Gamay Chaudenay, the latter being a gamay teinturier, a dark-pulp type of gamay that was used in the past to make darker wines, at a time there was no lab additives or thermal-vinification techniques for that purpose. They sold these first bottles to the family, mostly, plus on a couple of wine fairs they take part to, like Les Vins du Coin (in 2017 it'll be in Blois) and Bulles au Centre (soon) in Montrichard.

Settling tank

On this picture (not very sharp, sorry) you can see an interesting detail highlighting the way vignerons worked in the past, with this buried tank receiving the juice out of the press for setlling purpose. They now don't use it because theyd have to put a new coating first for hygiene reasons, and they don't own this cellar yet. François and Estelle vinify naturally and with little SO2 and hygiene is very important in that regard. The former owner worked on 15 hectares (including the 11,5 they just took over) and they used the cement vats for the vinification, which is good actually for the temperature inertia, but François & Estelle make small-batch cuvées for now (they sell much of ther grapes for now), plus they'd have to clean thoroughly the inside of the vats for security.

The smallest cement vats here make 28 & 29 hectoliters, with the total capacity amounting to close to 600 hectoliters, something that makes sense when you sell the wine in bulk to a broker like the former owners did, but is little-adapted to parcellaire bottlings. One of these vats is built along the rock at the bottom end of the cellar and one day if they buy this cellar they might put it down and dig further to enlarge the cellar, it's quite easy to do with the right tooms and you do,n't need construction or extension permit (building regulations can be tricky in France, lots of administrative hurdles and paperwork).

Vatting cellar

They're using fiber-glass or resin vats instead of the pre-existing cement vats, with the air-tight floating lid and their easy maneuverability they're also more convenient for their small-volume cuvées right now. These cellar tunnels are quite cold and if necessary they put some heating on in winter. Estelle came with their baby girl who was born this winter, she's on maternity leave right now, I don't know how it works for the self-employed farmers with the MSA (the French health insurance system for farmers and farm employees) but I understand that they get some replacement workers to have work-hours spent on the vineyards. I think this may have been the baby's first ever cellar visit of her life, possibly the dawn of a promising career in the trade...

More vats

They still have some wine from 2015, not everything having been bottled and they have some 2016 too, a year they made about 4000 or 5000 bottles, which is still a moderate volume compared to their potential bottle production. Until now they're following their plan, increasing little by little the vinification part versus the fruit sales, and on the 5th year they think they'll vinify the equivalent of 10 000 bottles if the market follows them. François says that he still wants to content his nécoce buyers for the grapes because it helps get instant cash which is strategic for a young domaine. François and Estelle also appreciate that Les Capriades and Bonhomme were there at the start to help them make a living and they want to keep selling them a share of their fruit. They'll see of course along the growth of their bottle sales, François says that they haven't yet worked on the commercialization of their wines and neither looked for export markets.

A deer in their vineyard

We drove to the vineyards using a beautiful dirt road along hedges, their vineyards are split in 3 major blocks. Upon arrival in the first block, I spotted a couple of roe deers in one of their parcels and could snap a picture of a brocard (here on left, running), brocard being the name hunters give to a male roe deer having grown horns. These animals were certainly having a treat of young leaves and
buds, no secret that wild animals love organic vineyards, i mean the real-organic ones, not necessarily the certified ones that allow the use of some lethal organic insecticides. François wasn't too worried about the deers coming and going to eat along the rows, I would be for sure, this certainly translates into lower yields at the end.

They're into their 3rd year of organic conversion which means that next july (2017) they're organic certified. From the 11,5 hectares in production they keep a part for vinification (the equivalent of 3 to 4 hectares) and sell the rest of the grapes to other domaines, namely Les Capriades which is located a short distance from here on the other side of the Cher, and Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme who recently bought back Puzelat's shares from the négoce they were running together. The picking for the sold part is done by the buyers' teams, Pascal Potaire using a draft horse for that by the way. For the work in the vineyard the rest of the year they're alone to do it, except for a few occasional hires of seasonal workers (TESA being the MSA administrative term for these jobs). Both of them worked as TESA years ago and now they hire some.

Old vines of Gamay Chaudenay

François says they feel lucky because many of the parcel they have are planted with old vines, with some 70 % being more than 40 or 50; what can be viewed as a handicap for conventional growers (because yields are lower) is a chance for someone looking into making authentic wine. And samely, a conventional grower would look down at these Gamay Chaudenay which have been virtually uprooted in the area because it is not listed in the AOC variety list (it's even forbidden to plant it although it has a long record of existence in the region). This dark-pulp type of gamay which isn't maybe a great grape when young has qualities of its own on older vines, to the point that you can vinify it by itself. You can see here the red leaves of the Chaudenay, the vine on its right being possibly a Gamay Beaujolais but François wasn't sure (complanting was routine in the past). He says Chaudenay asks for a different type of vinification, they do carbonic macerations followed by élevage in casks.

These red leaves of Gamay Chaudenay are also used as a medicine, taken as tea, it's considered excellent for people with poor blood-circulation. These AOC people don't know nothing.... they know a young woman who comes here to pick leaves after the harvest, it's of course much healthier on an organic vineyard like this one.

Beautiful old Pineau d'Aunis

The vineyards were previously farmed conventionally with the usual range of herbicide and fertilizers, so François and Estelle have been very careful not to harm them by going to harsh on the plowing side. Besides light soil scraping they abstained of any plowing that could harm whatever surface roots there might be. With the
conversion to organic (the whole surface will be certified this year) the vines already suffered from being cut off from their regular fertilizer sprays and they will introduce plowing progressively. They don't ask much to the vines and they're content with yields between 15 & 35 hectoliters/hectare. For now they're just mowing the grass and they've witnessed the coming back of a diverse plant life between the rows, spotting this or that weed or wild plant which was nowhere to be seen 3 years ago, and the birds and other wild animals seem to appreciate that. François would like to have aromatic herbs here and there too, things like rosmarin for example, and it's a whole, they want that people or workers feel good when they're in the parcels.

For the spraying they use fermented plant extracts, they've been doing that from the start, they buy the ready-to-use product from a company based in Brittany (I think it's Purin d'Ortie & Cie) and dilute it with the usual organic copper and sulfur, which allows them precisely to reduce the sulfur and copper part in the spray. This coating of plant extracts on the vine's foliage brings it strength and defense against disease and fungi. They do these sprays with the tractor, François says these plant extracts seem to work well, especially in such a situation when you convert from conventional to organic.
For the soil they use an organic compost, something named Bacteriosol, it help revitalize the soil by bringing bacteria life. It will bring earth worms back too as a consequence, allthewhile not releasing much nitrogen.
Didier barrouillet gave them the advice for the Pineau d'Aunis to put them on Cordon in order to make smaller bunches and avoid the hikes of volatile acidity that are common with this variety during the vinification.

Video on the pruning work

One of the reasons they're cautious for now with the plowing issue is that they're already in the process to correct the pruning of the vines. Bringing the sap flow back to a harmonious line is a long, arduous task along several years, and François
explains here how they did, for example on this Gamay Chaudenay vine that was planted in 1929. They try to bring down the height of the vine when possible. I'll not translate François' explanation but the growers will certainly understand what he says, it's a fascinating part of a grower's work, being able to visualize the living and bring it to a certain result. Which proves that even that old (1929 !) vines can be dompted and healed through care.

They'll accompany the vines to make the conversion to organic as smooth as possible; it is always tricky on older vines that got through decades of chemicals and no work on the soil, but on the other hand back in the 1920s' these vines were certainly farmed correctly with plowing et al, and they undoubtly still have vertical roots to feed off the deeper soil. In a couple years maybe François will get new tools for the back of his tractor in order to make a light plow under the rows and begin to slice the inter-row as well.
Their parcels look very different from the conventional ones around where the growers, who routinely get their parcels bare with herbicide and spray nitrogen afterwards to boost the soil. Of course now with his vineyard management he gets less grapes but in return the vinifications are smoother and natural.

Detailing the vine-rehab work

François says that when they first visited the vineyards (when they were considering buying the domaine) they didn't immediately realize the challenge of having to revamp
the pruning mode of these vines : everything was green and kind of hidden by the foliage and that's only in winter that they could grasp the extent of the task. Estelle and himself have learnt the Guyot pruning (or poussard) with a open bowl that allows for a natural ventilation on the vine, while around here they noticed they tend to bring the cane back toward the inside of the bowl, thus harming this natural ventilation (they do that because they use combines for the harvest and they find it more convenient).

It took 3 years for François & Estelle to correct this and bring the canes outward again, take the dead vines out (pic on left) and do some marcottage (a cheap & natural way to replace missing vines). On the whole I didn't have the impression that there were too many missing vines, although this heap of dead vines looks impressive, there were maybe a few rows with obviously lots of empty space but the rest looked almost whole.

Regarding the tools they bought back the straddle tractor of the former owner and they also bought a narrow tracteur vigneron.

Explaining marcottage

Here Estelle explains how you do marcottage to replace a missing vine : you let the cane of the next vine grow unimpeded for 3 years, leaving 2 or 3 eyes. Then they dig a small trench, 20-centimeter deep, letting the cane under the ground for maybe 50 centimeters or 1 meter, have it resurface with a post to protect and guide
it. The resurface "vine" or marcotte is pruned to get one one side a poussier with 2 eyes, and on the other side (toward the mother vine) a cane with 8 eyes. I am impressed with the speed of the replacement : in 3 years they get a producing vine with a quality of grape equivalent to the one of the mother vine.

Asked about the severing of the sap connection with the mother vine, Estelle says that they begin this year to lightly hack (in the shape of a triangle) the nurturing connection near the mother vine in order to wean the new vine, it's just a partial cut but it sends it the message that the sap connection will diminish. And next year they'll cut the connection right away. They do that because even though the new vine develops its feeding roots, it still tires the mother vine. The new independant vine will on the other ghand loose its Phylloxera protection as it will not have its American rootstock, it will thus be an ungrafted vine (Franc de pied).
Here on the left you can see a very long cane which will be buried later and become a marcotte and ultimately a new vine by itself when it's long enough. That's indeed a nice job, all you need is being patient and look after your vines and their growth, they'll reward you for sure...

Cabernet Franc with vivid-green canes

Speaking of the grape varieties, they have 9 of them, with a good share of Sauvignon (5 hectares), some Chardonnay, Menu Pineau (1,27 hectare), Chenin, Grolleau, Gamay Beaujolais, Gamay Chaudenay (a bit more than 1 hectare each), Cabernet Franc (1,5 hectare) and a bit of Pineau d'Aunis. Not good for a start, other young vignerons would dream of such a portfolio... I asked about the Pineau d'Aunis, they're already vinifying it, and as a red (too many people do rosé with this variety, which I consider a shame). François considers replanting some, the surface of land they bought including 3 hectares of bare fields, they have the open option to replant, but in the short term they focus on the vineyard management of the existing parcels.

What I liked as we walked through several of their blocks it's that it's not monolitic at all, you have a few rows of this grape, then that one, the Pineau d'Aunis for example can be found on several of their blocks. That's what I call a real traditional domaine with an empiric addition of small parcels. François says that although they didn't visualize this directly (having not plow yet), they noticed that their soils were very different, sometimes in the same block, with alternatively stones, silex and gravel, or sandy soils for example, and this translates in different expressions even for the same grape variety.

Old Grolleau

I was impressed by this parcel of Grolleau that looked in pretty good shape in spite of its age, it seemed to have few missing vines and the rows seemed to be closer to each other. The vines seemed to have less foliage than elswhere but that's because they pruned it among the last. You see these convoluted shapes, the result of the previous pruning type (taille "poussier"). They're doing some changes to bring the height down a bit and François says the result should be nice, with one branch on its side, each with 2 poussiers wirh 2 or 3 eyes, they don't ask too much to the vines, especially that the bunches on Grolleau are generous.
You can't see it well here but in the bottom end of this parcel there are a few rows of Menu Pineau (the vines with the long green canes that haven't been tied on the wires yet). this whole parcel which was planted in the 1950s' had almost all its fruit frozen last year, it's prone to frost damage because it's the closest to the Cher river (in the valley beyond the trees) and this yeazr the vines should produce more fruit as a revenge.

The cellar well

Back in the cellar to taste a few wines I spotted this incredible gem in the depth of the hill : an indoor well that a century ago or more allowed the vigneron to work here with almost all the modern amenities. Running water is important in a chai for hygiene, there's lots of cleaning at harvest time and here you got this well which over the years along the 20th century was equipped with a sink, an electric pump and a pressurized tank (the grey thing on the right) so that you had your own clean water.

In 2016 they made some 5 cuvées, 3 whites, a blend of Menu-Pineau/Chardonnay, a Sauvignon and a Chenin, and 2 reds, a Pineau d'Aunis and a Cabernet Franc. They bottle in table wine (Vin de France). the AOC Touraine isn't that interesting anyway and through word of mouth their wines find their clients without needing an AOC, especially that with the table-wine label they can also display the variety and the vintage. Some of the cuvées get some élevage in (old-barrel) oak after the time in vats.

In the 2nd cellar room

The cellar is organized this way, there's roughly a first room with the press and the well/running water and a 2nd room/gallery which is used as a vat room. But there's another cellar next to these two rooms, accessed with another door outside that François & Estelle might use in the future (and this one has a fireplace with a chimney !).
Regarding the vinification mode, they rely exclusively on the wild yeast, they don't even do pied de cuve, they do a light adding of SO2 for the whites after the pressing, when the juice goes into the vats, between 1 and 2 gr/hectoliter. For the reds it's much later than that. Estelle who worked for Chidaine and Bertrand Jousset has more experience in the vinifications, François says, and she is strict on the hygiene issue, it's a matter of details added to each other. Anyway regarding SO2, François says that they're in the norms asked by Les Vins du Coin, which are more restrictive than other organic certifications, with somethink like 30 or 40 mg/liter for reds and 50 mg for whites, and that's the maximum, meaning they're way under this ceiling. Usually François and Estelle add SO2 only at the beginning and at bottling and much of it goes away with the lees. Otherwise, absolutely no additives.

Tasting a Sauvignon 2016 from the vat

François offers to taste a few wines (I love this job...) and walks to this fiber vat toward the bottom of the cellar, filling a glass with an inviting golden wine. This is a Sauvignon 2016, but don't expect the typical sauvignon, there's no cat pee or the typical flower notes, it's more fruity,
very surprising and enjoyable indeed. It's made from an old parcel planted in 1960 with berries
that become yellow/golden when reaching maturity, François doesn't know if it has to do with being a different type of sauvignon than the common one. There's still residual sugar here, and there's a light tickling on the tongue, gives you a nice energy feel. François says that a month before this day they had 1007 on this wine. Estelle is the one who checks the wine and does the analysis, she says the wine stalls at one point in the cellar in winter with the low temperatures, and she says that anyway they never have wines that feel totally dry, one of the reasons being they pick really at maturity, but they like it this way, they get wines with different personality compared to the standard dry sauvignon on the market.

They don't filter their wines, Estelle says that filtering harms the wine (I can't agree more). Asked about the malolactic they say it has probably gone through, possibly before the first fermentation. François recalls when they did a whole range of lab checks for their wines with the Chambre d'Agriculture and it's always the same thing, they tell you about this problem or that problem and push you to add SO2 here and there but they don't listen to them, they just need the data and keep vinifying their way, and the fellow natural-winemakers do the same, they don't fall in the fear trap. Estelle says that when you leave the wine quiet it goes fine, the wine finds its tracks. At one point during the visit I spot a 4-spout bottle filler in the cellar (pic on right), for me certainly the best tool to do a bottling without harming the wine, the next top choice after keeping the wines unfiltered.

Chenin 2015

The next wine, also tasted from a tank with floating lid, was a Chenin 2015, with a nice golden color also. They say the right maturity gives this golden color, also the fact these are old parcels and this has also to do with the fact that they're doing a serious sorting in the vineyard when they pick, letting down the small/green berries and keeping the ripe ones only. This 2015 is sluggish to finisdh its sugar but oddly the Chenin 2016 is already finished, this was the first year it happened and Estelle jokes that if this repeats itself they might put the 2017 on the market before the 2015.... François tastes first and says that the sugar is down since the last time he tasted, they heated the cellar a bit in the depth of winter to prevent the temperature to be to cold.
In the mouth, there's this sweet side but seems less sweet that the former, looks like being close to be ready for me, and the mouth touch on the palate is very nice and enjoyable. 2015 was a hot summer around here but without grilled berries (like it occured in 2016).

A great rosé

Now, I'm not usually an amateur of rosé, but man, this one was really great ! Here is a Cabernet-Franc-Grolleau 2015, a direct press, the two types of grapes together. There were 135 boxes of grapes, and the press holding 90 boxes they had to do a 2nd batch. They have 14 hectoliters of this rosé (1600 or 1700 bottles).
François says that here too there's lots of residual sugar, he says that by the way they're lucky it didn't veer wrong. Tastes so beautiful, makes me thing to a Pièges à Filles without the bubbles, at least the earlier version of it which was in my opinion much more enjoyable than the drier version they're makling now at Les Capriades. François says that this similarity may not be a coincidence as these grapes also go to Les Capriades. This rosé would make a killing the way it is, I think, no matter the sweetness... They will sell a bottle of this rosé 7,5 € tax included, a great deal certainly. Asked about the estimated alcohol here François says it should be 11 % or 11,5 %. No need to say it goes down extremely easily. Plus you have a vinous feel with this wine with a nice substance.

Pineau d'Aunis !

Last but not least, François opened this red Pineau d'Aunis Vin de France 2015, it's actually 80 % of Pineau d'Aunis with 20 % Gamay Chaudenay, because the barrel wasn't full and they completed it with the gamay. The design of the label is Estelle's, pretty nice especially that she's not into graphic arts. They made only a barrel's volume, some 300 bottles and bottled it a month before this visit after 1,5 year of élevage.
The nose is so beautiful and exciting, already a pleasure. The mouth (and swallowed) is another treat, excellent wine. It was vinified with a carbonic maceration of whole-clustered grapes in a fiber vat, and Estelle did foot stomping on the top after 2 or 3 weeks, which was also risky because it brings air from the outside and may cause volatile. They didn't put SO2 on the incoming grapes here. François says that if you respect the basic hygiene rules for the carbonic maceration, do the remontage using buckets and no pump, no pigeage, the risks are limited. In 2016 the volume of grapes was much lower and they bottled all in mangums (60 of them), but without the gamay-Chaudenay part this time.
Alcohol here is 12,5 % and they sell a bottle 9,5 € tax included.
A last detail about this Aunis, my glass was empty and I smelled it, you know, the usual Pavlovian gesture, and it was just divine. This kind of detail doesn't lie.